Out of Time
by SmallScottishZombie
Summary: Roes is caught up in the world of the strigoi, after her father is turned. She never goes to the academy but instead is raised in the dark underbelly of the vampire world. Surrounded by monsters, she must fight for her very soul or what is left of it.
1. Chapter 1

His screams fill the room as the bullet shatters his kneecap. I hold a mask of cold indifference on my face, as the man whimpers on the floor. I glance up at the other men in the room as I tuck my gun away. Their poker game now completely forgotten, they watch me with fear filled eyes. I turn and walk to the door, making myself pause and look back to deliver the last piece of my warning.

"You've got till the end of the month to get us the rest of the money or your a dead man."

With that I turn and leave the shady hotel, my heels tricking on the concrete as I walk across to my car. My hand beginning to shake but I don't let my iron mask fall. Don't give myself the luxury of tears, instead I take this new horrible memory and shove it deep into the vault inside my mind.

I've been doing Abe's dirt work for nearly 5 years, making threats, spying, interacting prisoner, hacking security systems and a whole lot more. He orders it and I obey, without question or argument. I learnt to keep my mouth shut and opinions to myself the hard way. My father shows me no mercy when I displease him, he is cruel and ruthless.

It was not always this way, once there was a time when he truly loved me back before he died. The first 5 year of my life where full of laughter and love. My mother, Janine was a dampier and when she fell in love with my father, they ran away together. Not caring about the stigmas associated with mori dampire relationships. They loved me and each other world came crash down around us the day he die. For six months we thought he was gone, truly dead. But we were wrong, they didn't just kill him, they turn him. And then one night he came back for us. The fight was brutal and end with mum setting our house on fire with him still inside. We ran back to her homeland, Scotland in search ofsafety. And for a short time we found it behind the wards of her old academy. But that safe came with a heavy price because 3 yearslater, my father returned, more powerful than ever before. He brokethe ward and with his follower proceeded to rip the place apart. It was a massacre, the likes of which the mori world had not seen in over 100 years.

He took me from the bloody ruins of the academy, back to Russia and the centre of his empire. To be raised amongst monsters, until the day of my 18th birthday when I would become one as well.

I have less than 6 months left now. With every passing day I feel the noose draw tighter, and my operation for escape dwindled. I've triedmany times over the year to run, but every attempt failed and earnme countless scars for my trouble. During these last few week I have been even more reckless than usual, flirting with danger at every turn because I would truly rather die than lose what little humanity I have left.

The sun begins to sink in the sky as I speed along the winding back roads towards my father's country estate. Novosibirsk fades into the distance behind me. My hand grip the steering wheel tightly, my knuckles turning white as the wrought iron gates appear ahead. Just one more week, just one more. I promise myself, one way or another I will escape my father.

 **Please tell me what you think so far, some constructive criticism would be helpful.**


	2. Chapter 2

The little palace is Abe's masterpiece, a grand statement of this power and wealth. It is just as flash and intimidating as the man himself. The first time I ever laid eyes on it I thought it was beautiful, like something from a fairy tale. Now I know different, this place is straight out of a horror story.

I pull the Jeep into the underground car park, the last dying rays of sunlight vanishing, as the automatic door seals shut behind me. The underground network is one of Abe's more brilliant ideas. Miles of tunnels, connecting his various safe house across the country, underground garages and cars with UV resistant windows, allowing for greater freedom of movement even on the sunniest of days.

I spill out of the dark car park and up the servant stairs, hoping to avoid Abe's henchmen. I am in no mood for their games. The passages are completely deserted; I guess Abe through a dinner party while I was out. I make a mental note to find some replacement staff.

I am only half way up to my room when the sound of voice drift up from the floor below. I go to run but instead pause and listen when I hear my name mentioned.

"He can handle Rosemarie, stop worrying over it."

"Once she's awakened what's to stop her going rogue. I say we kill her now before she can truly become a threat"

Of course I've hear it all before. Ever since Abe brought me to the little palace there have been those who have whispered and plotted behind my back. These days the whispers are louder than ever. Part of me yearns for one of them to grow a pair and kill me already. But they are too scared to face Abe's wrath, any way if I go down, I am sure as hell going to bring them all with me.

Not wanting to get caught eavesdropping, I silently move up the last flight of stairs and through a secret door that leads straight into my quarters.

My rooms take up the entire top floor of the eastern tower and are in essence a self-contained flat, with a living room, small kitchen, study and bedroom with an ensuite. There is even a small spiral staircase that leads to the roof. I am sure that most teens my age would kill for something like this but to me it's a prison.

Everything is luxuriously decorated in my father's distinctive style, from the bed sheet to the plates in the kitchen. It all just one big reminder that I am trapped in here.

The only room which I truly feel at home in, is study. That's because a few year ago I spent one whole weekend ripping the room apart. I tore down the wallpaper, ripped up the carpet and smashed the furniture, leaving the room all but bare. Over time I have refilled it with little pieces of my life. Everything in the room has a story, some good, others bad from the battered filing cabinets, to the road signs that are nailed to the wall. The blood stained antique rug I won in a fight the last time I was in Turkey. I even built the desk myself, out of old crats and scrap.

I head in there now to slip my gun into it drawer and grab some case files. I proceed to catalogue the day's missions and update the profiles of the individual involved. I have flies on most of the people I meet, just in case Abe every asks me to deal with them. Some are very large and go into great detail, other take up less than a page. My biggest ones are mostly on high ranking member in the Morio and human worlds. There is also lots of juicy information on the Alchemists and their radical splitter group, the Warriors of Light. I find facts, collect gossip and steal secrets.

When I was younger spy work was all I did for Abe. My days there filled with quiet stake outs, computer hacking and research. I used to love to watch people, follow them, learn their habits. It was like a game. Back then Abe mostly left me to my own devices, as long as I keep giving him reliable information, was back by sunset and didn't slack in training, I was free to do as I pleased.

That all changed the day I turned 15. When Abe decided it was time I learnt more about the family business. Every day after that only brought me new horrors, memory that will forever be etched into my mind. Like the first time I killed.

I walked into a crowded cafe, my eyes scanning the room, searching. Then I saw him, sitting on the far side of the room, sharing coffee with his daughter. I took a table by the door and waited, watching them. I'd been trailing Alexzander Reznikov for about a week. Abe had taken a great interest in the man and wanted him watched closely. All of his movements where monitored and reported straight away. I honestly couldn't understand Abe's fascination; as far as I could tell he was just an ordinary guy. A family man, with a boring 9 to 5 job in the local bank and thinning hair. I was on to my second cup of coffee when Abe called.

"Have you got a visual on Reznikov?"

"Yes sir."

"Good, take him out."

"Wait, what?"

"You heard me. Take him down, do it fast and do it clean, I don't what a fuss made over this."

"I can't… I can't kill him"

"Are you questioning me girl?"

"No sir, it just how, we're in public, there will be witness, I can't?"

"I don't care how you do it or who sees, just deal with him"

"but…"

"Rosemarie, if you don't, I will."

With that the line went dead. I stared at the phone for a long moment. My hands shook and my breathing quickened, I hurriedly made my way to the restrooms, not wanting to have a full blown melt down in front of so many people. I lock myself in the last stall and try to calm down. Abe's last words to me playing over and over again in my head. "If you don't, I will". I knew what that meant, either I do this now, give him a quick end or Abe will rip him apart. He probably wouldn't stop there either, the whole family would die, screaming, begging for mercy that would not come. Images raced round my mind, each more horrifying than the last.

The sound of the hand drier pulled me from my thoughts. I knew what I had to do, what I must do. If not for my own sake, then for that of Alex's family. I pulled the gun out from inside my coat and screwed on the silencers, each of my movements careful and precise. All of my early panic had fled, I was eerily calm. The silencer in place I moved out of the stall, holding the gun out of sight under my long coat. Just then the bathroom door had opened and in had walked Alex's young daughter. She smiled brightly at me as I passed her. I stepped into the café's main room and my eye instantly landed on him. He sat alone in a high backed arm chair facing away from the rest of the room. I locked eyes with him as I squeezed the trigger. It made hardly any sound as the bullets passed through my coat and in to his chest. Alexzander Reznikov slumped and then fell as if in slow motion out of his chair. I didn't stop, just continued walking and not daring to look back. As the door of the café clicked shut behind me, I heard the screaming start from within and above it all young girl crying for her papa. I found the nears desecrated ally and fell to my knees sodding into the coyly stones until I had no more tear left to cry.

That particular memory has paid me nightly visits ever since and even now I make it a point to steer clear of the place whenever I am in Prague. Nearly every manger city in Europe hold one of these dark memories now. I have had so much blood on my hand, that sometime I wonder why they have not yet been stained forever red with it. I drop my head to the desk, my files completely forgotten as I let all my guilt and pain wash over me


End file.
